


the manly cold

by Fogfire



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 11:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16387049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fogfire/pseuds/Fogfire





	the manly cold

The first time you meet Leonard McCoy you are in your third year in the Academy and it’s almost a year after Jim Kirk, the troublemaker, has managed to find you yet again.

The first time you meet Leonard McCoy is when Jim, the whiny idiot, manages to call both of you for help at the same time and when you show up in your sweaty work out clothes there’s this handsome guy where your nuisance of a friend from Iowa should be.

“Who are you?” You ask each other at exactly the same time.

“I asked first,” he’s just a tiny bit faster than you.

“Y/N,” you wipe your hand on your trousers and offer it to him, “The girl that beat his ass eleven times in a row.”

“Ah,” he says and in the way he lifts the left corner of his mouth, just the tiniest bit tells you that Jim’s told him about you. That sucker.

“And you?” You ask when he doesn’t speak quick enough for your liking.

“Leonard McCoy. The one guy he keeps pestering.”

“Ah,” you smile and grab his hand to shake it, “You’re the doctor that threw up on him.”

He forces a smile and pulls back his hand and you realize that yes, your flirting skills are indeed hopeless.

.

If you had hoped for Jim’s charm to step in where you lacked in basically everything, you should have known better. Especially on a day like this, when he had summoned you with nothing more but an “I’m dying!” text, a clear sign that he was getting sick.

And as you shove open the door to his room with your regular dose of impatience, he barely lifts his head from his pillow to groan.

“I can’t breathe!” He gasps, his stuffy nose contorting his voice.

“Oh, shut up, that’s just a cold,” Dr. McCoy announces from behind you and steps forward.

“It’s the manly cold,” you explain, making your way over into the small kitchen, “And the only remedies I know are homemade soup and a lot of attention,” You call over your head but stop short when you hear a pained groan.

“I believe in a more advanced therapy,” the Doctor says as he pulls the hypospray away from Jim’s neck. 

You smirk. “Who said Doctor’s aren’t worth anything?”

“I don’t know,” he answers calmly, “Who said that?”

Yeah, you definitely need to work on your social skills.

.

A bit more than a year later you graduate from the Academy, leaving behind nothing more but a soup recipe taped to Jim’s fridge and a rather stiff hug.

“Don’t forget to keep in touch,” Jim reminds you.

“I tried that when I left Iowa and you tracked me down anyway,” you joke, “I don’t dare to try it again.”

“I could become your new captain,” he jokes and you hiss in exaggerated shock.

A part of you wants to say goodbye to his friend too. The good-looking, funny in his one way, Doctor friend whose presence has you make a fool of yourself every single time. But then again, it’s probably better this way.

“Tell the Doctor, I said hi,” you tell Jim instead and clap him on the shoulder, “Don’t annoy him too much.”

“He’s gonna have to make my soup.”

“Or you just gonna learn how to do it yourself.”

He rolls his eyes at you. “Just leave.”

.

And that could have been it. That could have been the quirky story you tell over drinks when you go on shore leave about the way you sucked at flirting when you were young.

But Jim had to be Jim. A bit of an ass most of the time, but a genius one.

He called you once a month to complain about the Academy, his workload, a girl that dumped him or just about anything else. His natural charm and the fact that you kind of missed him made it easy to just talk and joke and laugh for the better part of an hour until it was time to hang up and every single time he called it turned out that McCoy had been in the room, out of your sight but always close enough to listen to.

“Don’t call me when you have a friend over,” you chastised him, but he grinned and winked and you knew that he knew that- yeah, better not talk about it.

.

And that could have been it. That could have been your friend from the Academy that tried to set you up with a cute guy in the worst way possible.

But Jim had to be Jim. A total genius with ideas that made him a magnet for everything crazy.

First he almost got thrown out, then he was suddenly on the Enterprise, then he got thrown out - literally - but from the Enterprise and not the Academy and then, you always got that a bit mixed in your head, no matter how many times he told you the story, he met the future self of that green-blooded guy from his ship, but in old and from another timeline… or something like that.

And in a way that only Jim could, he saved the world, his Captain’s life and got, almost like by accident, not only his place in the academy back, but also the position of the Captain, on the Enterprise of all ships.

“I could hire you,” he had told you right away in your next phone call, “You get over here from that murky cold system you’re currently traveling through and work for me. I mean Cupcake’s doing a good job, but I can use more people in Security who can effectively kick my ass.”

“I have a good job here,” you tell him, sparing yourself the Cupcake story for another time.

“I’m sure Bones would like to have you here too,” Jim tried and you glared at him.

“Ask me again when you can be a Captain that doesn’t try to annoy me every five seconds.”

“Deal.”

.

And that could have been it.

But Jim had to be Jim.

And when you picked up another call, it wasn’t his voice coming through, but that of McCoy.

“Listen,” he said with urgency in his voice, “We need you here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Kid just broke more laws than I can count right now and lied about it in his report. If we’re lucky, he’s going to get a reprimand, but I think he’s running out of luck.”

“I can take my break,” you said, “And be in San Francisco in a week.”

He sighed and you closed your eyes, savoring the fact that this conversation might have a terrible topic, but you wouldn’t have thought of the two of you talking like this to be possible. He seemed to think the same thing.

“Looks like you can talk normally around me after all,” he tried to joke and you can’t help but grunt.

“Looks like you don’t make me that nervous when you’re not standing in the same room as me.”

You bite your tongue and close your eyes in pain.

No, your flirting skills will probably never improve.

“I gotta go, ask for my break. See you… maybe, someday, I don’t know, bye.”

.

But when you show up in San Francisco, you’ve come too late.

The one guy that’s actually willing to tell you something is Jim’s Chief Engineer, Scotty something, who talks a lot and drinks even more.

He lets you sit there, shocked and speechless, as he tells you what has happened, things Jim hasn’t even bothered to mention.

The fact that Christopher Pike died. That Jim went out for revenge.

That, just by a hair’s breadth, none of them would have survived.

And that Jim had not just died but had come back to life again because of some crazy blood thing. Scotty something explained that working with Jim’s sheer amount of luck and the crazy talent their CMO must have.

“Can I go see him?” Are the first words you get out and you’re not entirely sure if you’re only talking about Jim.

“Sure thing, Lassie, just go up and tell them Scotty’s sent you.”

.

When Leonard steps out of Jim’s room, he can’t remember the last time he’s had sleep, but that he needs coffee, urgently. But then he sees you sitting on one of the terrible chairs in the hallways, shoulders slumped, a bag next to your feet.

You jump up the moment you notice him, cross the hallway and hug him with a strength that probably shouldn’t surprise him. You work in security, after all.

“I am so so so so glad he has you as a friend,” you breathe into his shoulder and step back immediately, “I made soup. I know it’s not the manly cold, but it usually helps when Jim complains about being sick and-”

“He’s going to be fine. I hope. I wish. I don’t know, I just…” He lets out a breath. “You make me nervous too.”

He doesn’t know how he expects you to react. You surprise him anyway.

“I don’t know if my soup helps with that too,” you tell him, a smile on your lips, “But if you leave Jim at least half of it, we can try.”

.

Now that could have been it. A story about getting together, just as quirky as each part of the couple itself.

But Jim just had to be Jim.

And now you’re stuck with your husband in a cabin in the middle of snowy nowhere in something that was supposed to be a cozy holiday.

Cozy, because Jim had taken everything medical looking away from Leonard, telling him to relax during his shore leave.

And what had Leonard done?

He had gotten a cold. A manly cold.

“Soup’s ready!” You call from the kitchen and the groaning from the bedroom sounds just the tiniest bit less like dying whale and more like a happy whale.

Well, you’ve got your experience with manly colds, after all.


End file.
